Cantor Warns of Investor Backlash in Wake of Fisher Remarks
Eric Cantor Warns of Investor Backlash in Wake of Fisher Remarks
(Bloomberg) -- Moelis & Co. Vice Chairman Eric Cantor said financial firms failing to respect women in the workplace will be increasingly punished by customers.
Speaking in Saudi Arabia, Cantor commented weeks after 68-year-old money manager Ken Fisher let loose a bunch of vulgar remarks at an industry conference. In the aftermath, investors have pulled about $3.1 billion from the $114 billion Fisher Investments manages.
“The punishment, if you will, the reputational risk that came to bear and manifest itself was the investors in the fund began withdrawing their money,” Cantor said during a panel at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh. “Certainly, we can see clients and others, especially in the public market do have this reputational risk.”
The backlash around Fisher stems both from his remarks and then a failure to immediately understand the gravity of his words. At an industry conference on Oct. 8, Fisher compared the process of gaining a client’s trust to “trying to get into a girl’s pants” and talked about genitalia. He has since apologized for the comments.
--With assistance from Farah Elbahrawy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, James Hertling
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